Sylvia Boorstein is one of the world’s most esteemed teachers of Buddhist wisdom and practice. In an exclusive online retreat with Spiritualityandpractice.com, she offers a summation of her years as a preeminent teacher of lovingkindness.

Lovingkindness is called metta in Pali, the original language of the Buddha. Metta is a derivative of the word for “friend.”

“Although metta has often be translated into English as ‘lovingkindness,’ ” Sylvia says, “I like thinking of it as a friendliness practice, the cultivation of a mind that is so saturated with good will that it responds uniformly to all situations with benevolence.”